RIT Certified

RIT Certified
 

RIT Certified

Coming Fall 2022

RIT Certified animation of logo lockup

 

Bridging the gap between learning
and the job economy

RIT Certified is expanding our institutional reach through a new portfolio of programs for a new audience of learners who are looking for non-credit training and development opportunities.

We will join together with companies to fill crucial skills gaps for employers, individuals, and the job economy as a whole. Our programs will emphasize user-centered learning, meeting individuals where they are. These offerings will be aligned with job growth, and will dynamically reflect industry changes in real time. RIT Certified learners will earn credentials that recognize the skills they’ve acquired, signaling clear value to employers.

Who is the target audience?

A new and growing audience of learners who are not in the market for graduate or undergraduate degrees. Some of our learners will want to sustain their current job, some are seeking a promotion and need to define what upward mobility could look like, some will want to advance their career in ways education hadn’t imagined when they were in school, and some will want to switch fields. Our programs will support and enable the multiple job and career transitions demanding the acquisition and demonstration of new skills throughout an individual’s life.

The Organization

RIT Certified is a leader in forging partnerships with industry and government to identify workforce gaps, emerging skills, and hiring trends.

We are a strategic partner to the university, bringing unique expertise in the trends and opportunities in workforce education regionally, nationally, and worldwide. We understand how to access and impact a new population of learners for RIT, capitalizing on innovation to build learning experiences informed by intensive industry validation and delivering high levels of learner success to drive professional and economic mobility.

Frequently Asked Questions

If you have a question not answered here, please email us at certified@rit.edu.

Because of demographic changes and other micro and macro economic forces, higher education will experience a sharp and steep decrease—often referred to as the enrollment cliff—in the pool of prospective undergraduate students over the next several years. To respond, RIT must look to other populations to serve. RIT Certified is building a diversified program portfolio to meet the demand of two types of learners: those who are not in the market for a degree, and are seeking short-term professional credentials, training, and development; and nontraditional students who are seeking alternate pathways to a degree. RIT Certified will optimize RIT strengths to fill skills gaps for individuals and employers. The new unit will generate alternative sources of revenue which will be reinvested into the colleges, academic affairs, and university-wide priorities.

RIT Certified offers applied education and training serving employers, individuals in and out of the workforce, and working professionals.

The unit will be building a portfolio where audience demand drives the learning modality which may be blended, online, or in-person. This portfolio will be informed by learner-centered design and will include job simulation, scenario planning, project-based and futures-oriented learning.

RIT Online, in its role of supporting traditional online programs, will phase out, and the staff will be taking on new roles within RIT Certified. The team is eager to align their skills and experience with the mission of serving new audiences to create impact.

The management of online programs at RIT has always resided within the colleges and RIT Online’s role was to provide peripheral support services. The colleges will continue to manage their online programs and all support services will be transitioned or discontinued as appropriate. RIT Certified will provide, upon request, instructional design consultation services to maintain courses part of existing online graduate programs until Fall 2022.

If faculty are part of an existing fully online graduate program at RIT, they may go to RIT Certified to receive instructional design consultation, program design assistance, and/or online course support until Fall 2022. After this time, support will be transitioned. If faculty are part of a campus-based program or undergraduate online program, they may go to the Center for Teaching and Learning to receive instructional design consultation for online courses.

These programs will continue to run as they have. If interested, they may pursue a partnership with RIT Certified, though it is not required.

RIT’s portfolio of edX offerings will reside within RIT Certified. This portfolio includes MicroMasters programs, Professional Certificate programs, and single offerings. RIT Certified will be assessing the existing RITx offerings and making recommendations for the portfolio moving forward.

Contact Us

We are currently working with the colleges to develop a process for submitting ideas for courses and programs.

We are currently working with the colleges to develop a process for submitting ideas for courses and programs. In the meantime, if you have a question or thoughts to share, please contact us at certified@rit.edu